“When it comes to American politics specifically and European politics in general, there is nothing like playing the Russia card. If there is something wrong or there is something you don’t like, simply blame Vladimir Putin. That is exactly what the CIA is doing.”
Intel Today (December 17, 2016)
“Political and legal danger for President Trump may be sharpening by the day, but the case that his campaign might have conspired with the Russian attack on the 2016 election is still unproven despite two years of investigations, court filings and even numerous convictions and guilty pleas.”
Philip Ewing — NPR (December 15, 2018)
December 17 2016 — Former CIA officers Ray McGovern, Philip Giraldi and former US Diplomat James Jatras discuss the current hysteria about the so-called “Hacking” of the US election. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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UPDATE (December 17 2018) — The Steele dossier specifically claims that US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen and his three associates visited Prague in August 2016 to meet Kremlin officials to discuss how to make “deniable cash payments” to hackers in order to cover up “Moscow’s secret liaison with the Trump team.
So, where do we stand on Russiagate today? As NPR Philip Ewing just wrote, Mueller’s investigation has so far found nothing that would tie Trump’s campaign in with Russia’s active measures in 2016.
There is still no smoking gun, and the Russia case also appears to have been weakening, not strengthening.
Greg Miller — a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning reporter from The Washington Post — said that The Washington Post had worked hard to investigate Steele’s allegations, with the newspaper’s reporters “literally spending weeks and months” in a bid to obtain more information on the matter.
“We sent reporters through every hotel in Prague, through all over the place, just to try to figure out if he [Cohen] was ever there, and came away empty”, Miller noted.
Sources at the FBI and the CIA told Miller that they don’t believe that the “Prague meeting” ever happened.
END of UPDATE
December 17 2016 — Former CIA officers Ray McGovern and Philip Giraldi believe that the story is a “canard” made-up to weaken Trump. They also agree that it is a very dangerous lie. Former MI6 Alastair Crooke and former CIA Graham Fuller agree.
The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and other big news outlets are reporting as flat fact that Russia hacked the Democratic email accounts and gave the information to WikiLeaks. Not everyone agrees.
RELATED STORY: DNC & Podesta Emails Were Leaked by US ‘Insiders’, as well as Hacked by Russia!
Philip Giraldi (Former CIA)
“There is no evidence whatsoever. The CIA is not responsible for this nonsense. The CIA director John Brennan is. It is a political agenda.
The goal is to nullify the result of the election.
RELATED STORY: Former CIA Analyst Philip Giraldi: ‘Morell’s bluster deserves a bit of a fact check’
The CIA does not do this kind of report. The NSA does!
The US and Russia should work to solve the Syria crisis. The agenda is to handcuff Trump foreign Policy.”
Ray McGovern (Former CIA)
“It is a ‘red herring’. The former technical director of the NSA has made it clear that if it was a hack, the NSA would know. It is a LEAK.
Also, former ambassador Craig Murray just stated that he knows and met the source of one of these leaks. I know Murray and I can substantiate his claim.
RELATED STORY: Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern: Michael Morell’s Comments are ‘Reckless and Vapid’.
Murray was is town (Washington DC). I saw him disappeared in the wood. He never returned… I let the FBI figure out which day that was… [GOSINT: he answer is September 25 2016]
Neither the NYT, the WP — nobody — has called Murray. I checked with him last night.”
James Jatras (Former US Diplomat)
“There is a conspiracy to subvert the constitution.
We are told there is a consensus among Intelligence Agencies. It is not true.
They are trying to poison the well. Perhaps, blocking some nomination (Rex Tillerson).”
Alastair Crooke (Former MI6)
“The back story behind the CIA’s leaked claim of Russia helping Donald Trump is an attempt to hobble Trump’s less-hawkish foreign policy before he even gets into the White House.
The politicization of intelligence has reached new heights.
In short, we are told that the CIA claims are based on “inference”: which is to say that the CIA officials are “confident,” based on their psychological profile of President Putin, that the latter would prefer Mr. Trump as President; that since it was the Democrats who experienced leaks – and not the Republicans – it may be inferred that a hostile power was behind the leaks; and since Putin lies at the apex of Russian power, it may “confidently” be inferred that he personally would have authorized and directed such leaks.
Of course, this is not intelligence.” [ConsortiumNews]
Graham Fuller (Former CIA)
“The Russians may well have had a hand in helping hack the Republican and Democratic National Committees.
But these WikiLeaks also revealed how a corrupted Democratic National Committee contributed heavily to skewing the Democratic Party nomination process against Bernie Sanders.
If the Russians were involved — and we have not yet had an official pronouncement on that, only leaks — such interference is unacceptable and must be fully and publicly investigated.
But such investigation should neither distract from nor delegitimize the content of the specific WikiLeaks information on the DNC, which should also be the object of outrage.
Yet this isn’t new.
It’s not as if the U.S. has suddenly turned a corner with this election. U.S. foreign policy has grown ever more isolated from the world and from reality since at least 9/11.
Life in this world of denial may even date from the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. That was when the U.S. received what must now be seen as palpably a curse — the transient domination of the entire global scene, when we trumpeted ourselves as the “sole global superpower.” [ConsortiumNews]
VIDEO
REFERENCES
Politicized Intelligence Kneecapping Trump — ConsortiumNews
How America Disgraces Itself — ConsortiumNews
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CIA Playing the “Russia Card”. Again…
Two Years Ago — CIA Playing the “Russia Card”. Again…
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